The present invention relates to a method of producing a knitted article on a flat knitting machine.
For a rational manufacture of knitted articles, in particular in clothing industry, it is today required to provide as many manufacturing steps as possible on a knitting machine, so that only a few subsequent steps or no steps at all are needed. In the case of articles of clothing with fasteners, only a knitting of button holes on the knitting machine was performed. By means of a widening technique approximately round button holes can be produced. Longitudinal slot-shaped button holes can be formed by intarsia technique and horizontal slot shaped button holes can be performed by a looping technique. The buttons which correspond to the button holes must be sewn however in an additional working step. It has been recognized that the button which must be placed at the same height as the associated button hole requires a corresponding attention and therefore can be performed in a machine to a very limited extent.
On the other hand, fasteners on clothing articles are frequently needed, for example in form of buttons or button hole strips on cardigans, on reverse sides of a pullover, or on hand cuffs or pocket slots.